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I had a very similar experience to yours -- I was also a programmer and likewise saved up a bunch of money for grad school. I even got my BA while in the servic

I had a very similar experience to yours -- I was also a programmer and likewise saved up a bunch of money for grad school. I even got my BA while in the service thanks to generous education subsidies to active duty personnel. As for not laughing well most of us have been there. That feeling lasts well beyond basic training. Even though I started this thread by talking about wanting to fake my death being in the military was overall a very good experience. As somebody else already said down-thread it forces you to mix with a wide variety of people, something we don't do nearly enough as a society. For that reason alone I think it would beneficial to bring back the draft though perhaps minus the part about fighting wars all over the place.

derekp7 10y ago
Mandatory civil service could be an alternative to the armed forces, for those that don't want to be involved in fighting. In fact, I would like to see a civil service branch patterned after the military branches (or maybe similar to the peace corp), which would be primarily responsible for all infrastructure projects (road / bridge building, govt. office positions, IT services, etc). This would be an excellent way to get young people who are out of high school into the workforce. Then if they can't find private work after their 2-year civil service stint, they can always re-enlist.
- kaybe 10y ago
  We used to have that in Germany when there was still mandatory military service a few years back. For historical reasons, refusing to serve with a weapon was very common, and in this case one had to serve an equal time in the civil sector, such as help out in a kindergarten, hospital or old people's home. There was a lot of complaining after the service was abolished due to the missing very cheap labour.
Asooka 10y ago
Voluntary military service can be beneficial for people, but think about this: what do you get when you put a bunch of 18 year old men together who hate being where they are and feel like getting beaten to death is preferable to taking orders. What you get is hell. That's the only word I've heard used to describe the draft while we still had it and nobody I've asked had wanted to talk about it at length. I've heard "it was hell", I've heard "you become a monster", I've heard of people going in being fine and coming back schizophrenic. I've never once heard anyone ever say that it promotes good habits or discipline. Maybe it can be different in America, but knowing what it was back here I would never wish the draft on my worst enemy.

derekp7 10y ago

Mandatory civil service could be an alternative to the armed forces, for those that don't want to be involved in fighting. In fact, I would like to see a civil service branch patterned after the military branches (or maybe similar to the peace corp), which would be primarily responsible for all infrastructure projects (road / bridge building, govt. office positions, IT services, etc). This would be an excellent way to get young people who are out of high school into the workforce. Then if they can't find private work after their 2-year civil service stint, they can always re-enlist.

kaybe 10y ago
We used to have that in Germany when there was still mandatory military service a few years back. For historical reasons, refusing to serve with a weapon was very common, and in this case one had to serve an equal time in the civil sector, such as help out in a kindergarten, hospital or old people's home. There was a lot of complaining after the service was abolished due to the missing very cheap labour.

Asooka 10y ago

Voluntary military service can be beneficial for people, but think about this: what do you get when you put a bunch of 18 year old men together who hate being where they are and feel like getting beaten to death is preferable to taking orders. What you get is hell. That's the only word I've heard used to describe the draft while we still had it and nobody I've asked had wanted to talk about it at length. I've heard "it was hell", I've heard "you become a monster", I've heard of people going in being fine and coming back schizophrenic. I've never once heard anyone ever say that it promotes good habits or discipline. Maybe it can be different in America, but knowing what it was back here I would never wish the draft on my worst enemy.